Planes, ice cream and automobiles

MESA students showed off their science skills Saturday at Mendocino College

Students making ice cream at Mendocino College Saturday weren't being judged on how their concoctions tasted -- they had to prove how well they understood the science behind the creamy treat.

"It's all chemistry," said Margaret Sanchez, director of the college's Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) program. "How the ice moves from a solid to a semi-solid, and why the ice cream is cold but soft, not hard."

Sanchez and MESA students from Ukiah and Fort Bragg were at the college this weekend for the Pre-MESA Day competition, which had 200 high school and middle school students vying for a chance to compete at Sonoma State University next month.

Along with making ice cream, the competitors flew balsawood gliders, drove mousetrap cars, dropped eggs and built anatomically correct models of eyes and brains.

The mousetrap cars earned their name because they feature an actual mousetrap that snaps and pulls a rod, which then pulls a string wrapped around the car's axle, making the "wheels" spin.

For the middle school students, the wheels were actually CDs fastened to balsawood frames, and the car that went the farthest won.

Deborah White, who teaches math at the college and was judging the cars Saturday, said building them is "a really great beginning engineering project for middle school kids.

"It teaches the elements of engineering and dynamics, and how the weight and balance of your vehicle affects how far and how straight it will travel," White said.

Helping White judge was Ukiah High School graduate Sandra Arellano, who said she joined MESA as a sophomore because all of her "smart friends" were part of it.

"And that's where I wanted to be," the 21-year-old recalled, explaining that she likes engineering because it involves thinking, solving puzzles and "constructing things that people actually use."

Arellano said she is a student at the college now, and hopes to transfer to the California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and study to become an architectural designer.

Another former Ukiah High MESA student who was judging was 19-year-old Meredyth Macias, a 2010 graduate.

"Last year I was competing," Macias said, explaining that it was quite different to be observing rather than dealing with the stress of wondering if your car would run, especially when it hadn't been working the night before.

As a high school student, Macias said the mousetrap car she built didn't just have to roll, but travel up a ramp, which requires tires with traction, not CDs. Macias said she is now studying business at the college.

Geri Buller, the former director of MESA at Ukiah High, said students need to have at least a 2.0 grade point average and the potential for math and science, as well as family income that qualifies them for free and reduced lunches to join the program.

Buller said just one of the program's success stories, former Ukiah High student Juvenal Jaimes, was scheduled to speak at the awards ceremony. She said Jaimes is studying at Chico State University, and recently earned a full scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Students who placed in the top third Saturday will compete at the regionals April 30 at Sonoma State.